April 2025 General Game Discussion

[Colif]

wish we had a rating system based on quality of the game and not just how much was wasted producing the game.

It would be so much more logical.

I mean, come on... the only AAAA game made so far isn't worth the money wasted on it. If anything it just shows how badly you failed.

 

[neogunhero]

But it's true that a lot of the characters are either overtly unlikable or one dimensional.

This is really the only issue I have with it. The game throws so many characters at you in such a small amount of time and doesn't give proper enough time to flesh them out to the point where you actually can start to like them. That Joe and Jack mission towards the beginning where they are going to blow up the water tower, you are given the option to attack or try to negotiate. Turns out you fight them no matter what, but still, the game presents this as a major choice that could affect the rest of the game, yet does not give you sufficient enough time to understand these characters or their motivations. It’s the very first time you see them in person I believe, and already the game is asking to make a decision.

Besides that though, the rest of the game is actually great. One small nitpick though, the game gives you the choice to assign resources to either Peacekeepers or Survivors, with different benefits depending on who you choose. I looked through all the rewards and simply can’t find reason to ever choose PK when it comes to that. They give a lot of handy traps around the world but personally, I enjoy parkour so much more that none of the PK benefits looked enticing.

 

[Zed Clampet]

This is really the only issue I have with it. The game throws so many characters at you in such a small amount of time and doesn't give proper enough time to flesh them out to the point where you actually can start to like them. That Joe and Jack mission towards the beginning where they are going to blow up the water tower, you are given the option to attack or try to negotiate. Turns out you fight them no matter what, but still, the game presents this as a major choice that could affect the rest of the game, yet does not give you sufficient enough time to understand these characters or their motivations. It’s the very first time you see them in person I believe, and already the game is asking to make a decision.

Besides that though, the rest of the game is actually great. One small nitpick though, the game gives you the choice to assign resources to either Peacekeepers or Survivors, with different benefits depending on who you choose. I looked through all the rewards and simply can’t find reason to ever choose PK when it comes to that. They give a lot of handy traps around the world but personally, I enjoy parkour so much more that none of the PK benefits looked enticing.

Not counting the benefits of the Peacekeepers or Survivors, I actually liked the Peacekeepers more, and I'm not sure that was supposed to be the case. To be honest, I can't remember at this point why I liked the Peacekeepers better. I think I thought they were more calm and organized whereas the Survivors were very emotional and disorganized.

 

[BeardyHat]

@BeardyHat NVM your wife's high score. I would still find it interesting, but I've figured out what the problem was.

Went looking for which map you wanted it on (and was it Mini Metro or Motorways?)

Also, I played Oblivion, Indiana Jones and Stalker 2 right at launch via Game Pass, so definitely before any major optimization patches. And it really is just those three games that are giving me the most issues,

Don't have any experience with any of them, but I do know that currently those are some of the three most taxing games out.

I should really sign-up for Gamepass, as I do want to try all of those.

Played a bunch of Dying Light 2 since Friday. Got very sick yesterday so I took the day off and played a bunch. I will say, I completely agree with everyone who say the story is the weakest part of the game, the amount of dialogue in this game is kind of ridiculous.

I had this issue with Dying Light. Haven't played the second game, but the first one was so up its own ass with such a mediocre story and dialogue, I had trouble continuing it. I do still want to go back, but I need to convince myself it's ok to skip all the cutscenes.

Haven't been back to Two Point Hospital in a couple of days, though I do want to play some more of it. Instead, I'd been playing my heavily modded version of Oblivion Game of the Year edition, but I think I'm ready to call it quits on that one. I put about 10-hours into it, but I'm still feeling that general burnout I was getting with Cyberpunk where I just don't want to listen to and navigate dialogue trees at the moment. Also, I ended-up going to The Shivering Isles by happenstance and I can't say I really like it much; they sort of modeled it after Morrowind; unpopular opinion, but Morrowind has my least favorite world of all the Elder Scrolls games. I actually much prefer the generic fantasy of Daggerfall, Oblivion and Skyrim to the weird fantasy of Morrowind, so the tall mushrooms and stuff just doesn't do it for me.

Also, I started playing Carmageddon: Max Damage. What sparked this was noticing that someone has made a recompilation of the original Carmageddon, which is one of my favorite games. I got it installed on my Steam Deck and was having a good time with it, but given that it's basically running in Software mode, it's tough to tell what's going on at any great distance and got me thinking about the newer versions of Carma. I'd spent about 6-hours in Max Damage, but it never really clicked with me, so I gave it a reinstall here the other night and I've been having a great time with it. It's very nice to just have a straightforward game with nothing to read or listen to, I'm just driving around, running over people and trying to smash the other cars. Good fun.

 

[DXCHASE]

I mean, come on... the only AAAA game made so far

Since ubisoft is the only dev to really use that term non-sarcastically, no AAAA games exist or will exist in the close future.

Holy cow!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was made by only 30 ex-Ubisoft devs. That's remarkable for a AAA game.

This actually brings up a good argument. Should a dev put everyone that worked on the game in its credits?

So, not to bring down the parade here but, yes the the studio employs around 30-35 people, the CEO and CTO of the company were ex-ubi employees (not all of them), but the game was really developed with a lot more people.

The credits show a lot more people made it than just that studio mainly due to outsourced areas, VA (of course) and QA and you can only imagine what isnt shown. Yes, the actual company is small and to release something like Expedition 33 to the acclaim is resounding, but it wasnt all that cut and dry, like most games, especially ones that get the notion of being made by small groups of people.

From having articles like this to the sales figures of the game, its doing really well but lets not forget that almost every game leaves out tons of people that worked on it from the credits.




Started playing Diablo 4's new season and its pretty much exactly the same to me. Most of the seasons new stuff doesnt come until later because this season is all about "boss fights" and i havent gotten near that stuff yet so right now im doing what i always do in that game. It feels ok but...lacking and just all-around boring, i mean im going to be playing it but its not new.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Since ubisoft is the only dev to really use that term non-sarcastically, no AAAA games exist or will exist in the close future.





This actually brings up a good argument. Should a dev put everyone that worked on the game in its credits?

So, not to bring down the parade here but, yes the the studio employs around 30-35 people, the CEO and CTO of the company were ex-ubi employees (not all of them), but the game was really developed with a lot more people.

The credits show a lot more people made it than just that studio mainly due to outsourced areas, VA (of course) and QA and you can only imagine what isnt shown. Yes, the actual company is small and to release something like Expedition 33 to the acclaim is resounding, but it wasnt all that cut and dry, like most games, especially ones that get the notion of being made by small groups of people.

From having articles like this to the sales figures of the game, its doing really well but lets not forget that almost every game leaves out tons of people that worked on it from the credits.




Started playing Diablo 4's new season and its pretty much exactly the same to me. Most of the seasons new stuff doesnt come until later because this season is all about "boss fights" and i havent gotten near that stuff yet so right now im doing what i always do in that game. It feels ok but...lacking and just all-around boring, i mean im going to be playing it but its not new.

I assumed that VA and QA were separate, but I don't think games need to list everyone who worked on the game's assets (plugins). Games usually use a bunch of these, like SpeedTree, Celtx, GameBench, and I don't think it's necessary to list everyone associated with those. Personally, I think the in-game credits list so many people that they are useless, and I'd rather see the developer's website have a section on credits that is searchable, etc.

In any event, someone like Ubisoft would have over 100 artists and engineers. Maybe well over that. It's a bad joke, at this point, that games like Anno 1800 had over 1500 people working on it. No wonder they are in financial trouble. Inefficiency may look on the surface to be a good thing for workers, but it isn't sustainable.

 

[DXCHASE]

I assumed that VA and QA were separate, but I don't think games need to list everyone who worked on the game's assets (plugins). Games usually use a bunch of these, like SpeedTree, Celtx, GameBench, and I don't think it's necessary to list everyone associated with those. Personally, I think the in-game credits list so many people that they are useless, and I'd rather see the developer's website have a section on credits that is searchable, etc.

In any event, someone like Ubisoft would have over 100 artists and engineers. Maybe well over that. It's a bad joke, at this point, that games like Anno 1800 had over 1500 people working on it. No wonder they are in financial trouble. Inefficiency may look on the surface to be a good thing for workers, but it isn't sustainable.

There was an interview somewhere with one of the development team talking about how they were using some pre-made assets within the UE5 engine to speed up certain areas of development and I, for one, think thats an amazing idea. I bring this up because i see gamers use that as an attack against development when its actually a good idea.

The article i linked there says the game was made by 500 people and, even for 500 people, this game is still very well made. I do agree, id rather have credits be accessible somewhere else.

 

[Zed Clampet]

There was an interview somewhere with one of the development team talking about how they were using some pre-made assets within the UE5 engine to speed up certain areas of development and I, for one, think thats an amazing idea. I bring this up because i see gamers use that as an attack against development when its actually a good idea.

The article i linked there says the game was made by 500 people and, even for 500 people, this game is still very well made. I do agree, id rather have credits be accessible somewhere else.

Sorry, I misread that link to say the article was about the sales figures, so I didn't follow it. I'm on a lot of hardcore cold/flu drugs right now

And the often used criticism of using pre-made assets in some cases has always been misguided. We have Jim B. Sterling to thank for that (sorry, I forgot their new feminine middle name, but think its starts with "B")

 

[neogunhero]

Don't have any experience with any of them, but I do know that currently those are some of the three most taxing games out.

I should really sign-up for Gamepass, as I do want to try all of those.

They definitely are up there on the list of the most graphically demanding games available today. Maybe not Oblivion for the same reasons, I believe it is just poorly optimized based on all the online complaints I've read, Indy and Stalker don't seem to be as poorly optimized.

Game Pass is a good deal, only if you actually use it and like the games that are on there. While there are like 300-400 games, I find most of them not very interesting. I mainly keep my sub active to play brand new games, or other games that I find interesting. The price has gone up a lot, but I believe the PC only version is about $12 a month currently, you don't need the Ultimate version unless you or your family also play on an Xbox. It's the same issue with most streaming services, I'll sign up for a month to watch one thing then never touch it again for a long while. I recommend to immediately disable recurring billing and delete your card info off your MS account if you ever do sign up.

I had this issue with Dying Light. Haven't played the second game, but the first one was so up its own ass with such a mediocre story and dialogue, I had trouble continuing it. I do still want to go back, but I need to convince myself it's ok to skip all the cutscenes.

It's been a while since I played through the first game's story mode, I normally just load a save that has already beaten the game, but I think it was more serviceable than the second game.

Not counting the benefits of the Peacekeepers or Survivors, I actually liked the Peacekeepers more, and I'm not sure that was supposed to be the case. To be honest, I can't remember at this point why I liked the Peacekeepers better. I think I thought they were more calm and organized whereas the Survivors were very emotional and disorganized.

They definitely are emotional and disorganized. They like to get drunk then act like they can take on an entire militia when they are just some scrappy street kids with some slight engineering proficiency. I think the point is to have this divide between an organized army vs the underdogs, but all I care about is that the Survivors give me cool parkour gear.

I assumed that VA and QA were separate, but I don't think games need to list everyone who worked on the game's assets (plugins).

Rockstar would like to disagree. The RDR2 credits are over 30 minutes long and seemingly include every single person who ever touched the game during development. At least there are some great tracks from Josh Homme, D'Angelo and Daniel Lanois to help pass the time.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Rockstar would like to disagree. The RDR2 credits are over 30 minutes long and seemingly include every single person who ever touched the game during development.

I don't know what the point of that is. The important thing, an area where the industry needs much improvement, is keeping actual records of their employees and contract workers who worked on the games. I've heard countless stories of people who got laid off and tried to find a new job, but the company they worked for didn't have a record of what they had worked on. Who cares about their name scrolling by at 50 mph if you get fired and they can't even confirm you worked on the game? And I could swear one of these stories was about Rockstar, though that could be wrong. Turns out my brain randomly generates memories

 

[Zed Clampet]

I have 1.5 million Steam points , so I'm giving awards to my kids to give them as many points as I can.

Edit: There are a lot of $hit talkers leaving comments on Guido's profile. He seems to be handling it well.

 

[neogunhero]

I have 1.5 million Steam points

You get 100 Steam points for ever $1 you spend, so did you actually spend $15,000 on games since 2022 when the points were first introduced??

 

[Zed Clampet]

You get 100 Steam points for ever $1 you spend, so did you actually spend $15,000 on games since 2022 when the points were first introduced??

Not exactly. I also get gifted rewards for my mods and reviews (I have done 275 reviews). I have no idea what the breakdown is, how much comes from game purchases versus rewards. But I've spent an ungodly amount on games since I retired. In the thread where everyone checked the amount they had spent on Steam, I had spent $27,000. It's not surprising at all to me that more than half of that might be in the time since I retired.

Based on when I got the "Games Industry Guardian" badge from Steam in 2023 (from the date on my screenshot), I have bought 570 games/DLC since then, which works out to $26 apiece. But the program started some time in 2022, so that seems reasonable considering my game buying is completely out of control. If a day goes by and I haven't bought a game...

I just took a screenshot of my Steam points, but keep in mind that I just spent half-an-hour giving half my friend list 20k points (each). I didn't take a screen shot when I was at maximum. I also bought a crap ton of things in the point shop. And I've gone on shopping sprees before, as well, so who knows what the actual number of points earned was.

 

[Zloth]

Yeah, Steam has a serious inflation issue with Steam Points. If they upped the price of everything 10x, I don't think I would even notice.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@neogunhero I think I might be offended that you find my spending problem humorous.

 

[neogunhero]

@neogunhero I think I might be offended that you find my spending problem humorous.

Hey, it's your money, I'm not the one spending it! If I had the same means, without a doubt I would have spent the same amount of money on games as you did. I guess that's really what my 401K is for, Steam games when I'm retired

 

[neogunhero]

Nubby's Number Factory on Steam

A plinko-style roguelike where you work at a number factory. Launch your spherical friend, Nubby, down a pegboard to make bigger and bigger numbers! But beware, if you fail to meet your number quota, the sun will explode.

store.steampowered.com

This game is casting some sort of spell on me. It's so simplistic yet so addicting. It's Balatro meets plinko. You just drop a ball, it bounces on the pegs, numbers go skyrocketing, multiplers everywhere, it's just insane. Not for the epileptic.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Nubby's Number Factory on Steam

A plinko-style roguelike where you work at a number factory. Launch your spherical friend, Nubby, down a pegboard to make bigger and bigger numbers! But beware, if you fail to meet your number quota, the sun will explode.

store.steampowered.com

This game is casting some sort of spell on me. It's so simplistic yet so addicting. It's Balatro meets plinko. You just drop a ball, it bounces on the pegs, numbers go skyrocketing, multiplers everywhere, it's just insane. Not for the epileptic.

$499 points

 

[Zed Clampet]

OMG tomorrow is 5/1

 

[Colif]

5th of January?

Yeah, no... 1st May is today